Friday, May 17 was an in-service day for teachers at most Kenai Peninsula Borough School District Schools. But in Cooper Landing, students arrived at the normal time with their lunch and their coats to attend a hard-fought extra day of class.
Middle schoolers at the tiny school of 17 students petitioned the district for an extra day at the end of the year, to spend more time in class and say goodbye to their friends headed off to high school.
Kristine Route teaches fourth through eighth grade at the school. She said back in March, students noted how strange it was that the school year ended on a Thursday and requested an extra day.
“They said, “How come you can’t give us more school, Krissy?” Well, it’s not up to me, I’m not the one who decides the school year. They were like “Well you need to give us another day.” Again it’s not up to me. “Well, who do we need to talk to?” I said well, you can start with the principal,” Route recounted. “They asked “How do we do that?” I was like well you can write her a letter, detailing what you want, and see what happens.”
And that’s how the campaign began. The letters vary in length and style: some are artistic, with cover art and decorated envelopes, while others are more formal. The students delivered the letters to their principal, Cindy McKibben, over the course of the day, dropping one off in her office every 30 minutes. The final letter came in the form of a table length scroll.
McKibben made a request to the district, and secured the students their extra day.
Cooper Landing is a K-12 school, but many high school age students opt to commute to a traditional high school in Soldotna or Seward, both an hour’s drive away.
“All the students are very close, they’re like a big family, and we have two who have been here for a very long time who are eighth graders, and next year they are heading off into the new adventure of high school,” Route said. “They have both chosen to go to a different school outside of Cooper Landing, so it’s kind of breaking that family aspect, so they wanted to spend as much time as possible with those two, doing fun stuff.”
Jack Swain is a rising sixth grader at the school. In his letter, he made an appeal to his love of history class, and the fun activities students could accomplish on an extra day.
“And since I love school so much, my friends and I would like to request an extra day of school so we can play more team games like kickball and dodgeball,” Jack wrote.
Other letters mentioned the mental health benefits of being around friends, the students' love of their teacher, and of course, the two rising high schoolers.
Athena Harrison is one of the two eighth graders, and she’s headed off to Soldotna High School, the district’s largest, in the fall. She said it was strange but nice for her younger classmates to rally so strongly for that extra day. After attending Cooper Landing School since kindergarten, she said the SoHi class sizes, and the hour-long commute, are pretty daunting.
“It’s gonna be a big difference from being here to being there. I went to the eighth grade orientation last Monday, it was just a lot of people even compared to this, and that was just in my grade,” Harrison said. “So, it’s terrifying.”
Route said most of that final Friday was spent playing games requested by students, including laser tag, dodgeball and Lynx Ball, a game devised by students and teachers that can be played in the school’s small gym.
There are few enough students here that teachers always participate in the activities too. The kids said overall, the day was just as amazing as they expected.
